Visits: 2
Still, Alex Bregman and his Houston teammates largely said they didn’t feel disrespected over being relegated to the second-tier series.
“I know nobody else in Major League Baseball has forgotten about us,” Bregman said.
He gave the rest of the postseason field plenty of reason to pay attention on Monday, reaching base all six times and going 2 for 3 with a double, a run-scoring single and two walks. He was also hit by a pitch and reached base on a critical error.
The only other players to reach base six times in a postseason game are Kenny Lofton for the Indians in the 1995 World Series, and Stan Hack, who did it in 1945 for the Chicago Cubs.
Bregman got to first base in the seventh inning on the second of two throwing errors by Trevor Bauer, the Indians’ starter-turned-relief pitcher. Cleveland led at the time, 2-1, but Bauer melted down in the inning, allowing three Houston runs. He threw away a pickoff attempt at first base, and then had a chance to get out of the inning when he fielded a potential double-play ball hit by Bregman. But his throw was wide and all runners were safe.
Houston did not look back from there, adding six more runs in the eighth to run away with it.
“At the end of the day it’s inevitable,” Bregman said. “We’re going to find a way.”
For the Indians, it is another year of disappointment, the 70th since they won their last World Series in 1948. They came close in 1997 and 2016, losing the World Series in seven games both years. This year the Indians won the American League Central by 13 games, but found themselves at the wrong end of a mismatch in the playoffs.
“I’m glad we’ve had a chance,” said Terry Francona, Cleveland’s manager. “If you keep giving yourself a chance, at some point you believe you’ll break through. We haven’t been good enough to this point.”